Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Mapping the World at War

Since 1969 the indigenous people of Indonesia's Papua and West Papua states have been fighting for independence. Some estimates suggest that more than 100,000 people have died in the struggle. Unfortunately this is just one of many long ongoing conflicts around the world which go largely ignored in the west.

IRIN, the non-profit humanitarian news and analysis team, wants to draw attention to the forgotten conflicts of the world. To help achieve this aim it has created an interactive map of all the current ongoing conflicts around the world. The World's Conflicts map shows where conflicts are currently taking place across the globe.

Each conflict is shown on the map with a scaled marker. The size of the markers represent the length of time that each conflict has been continuing for. You can click on an individual marker to read more about the nature of the conflict, the main protagonists involved and an estimate of the number of casualties involved.

The Global Conflict Tracker is another map which shows the location of conflicts around the globe. This map from the Center for Preventive Action is designed to show "ongoing conflicts around the world of concern to the United States".

The map provides two main views, 'Impact on U.S. Interests' and 'Conflict Status'. If you switch between these two views the color of the conflict markers change to show the severity of the impact to U.S. interests or the severity of the conflict itself. If you select a conflict on the map you can click through to view a detailed account of the conflict, including the historical background and recent developments.

ConflictMap.org also provide an interactive map of armed conflicts currently taking place around the world. The map shows where conflicts are happening and provides links to the latest news stories about the conflicts.

The red circles around the conflict markers on the map indicate the current severity of the conflict (high, medium or low). The colors of the markers provide an indication of the current level of activity (red indicates the most active). If you click on a marker you are provided with a series of links to the latest news reports about the selected conflict.